Jiao Zhe Xue Yi Qian Wu Bai Nian [Fifteen Hundred Years of Christian Philosophy], first published in 1994 by the prestigious People's Press, has been reprinted many times.12 The translation of Christian classics and other Christian literature in mainland China has also been considerable, with the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hong Kong making a significant contribution in this area.

Equally significant has been the changing attitude of Chinese scholars toward Christian literature. One of the best known authorities on Nes-torianism in China was undoubtedly the late Professor Zhu Qian Zhi, who taught at Beijing University and later worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he passed away in 1972 at the age of 73. Zhu's work on Zhong Kuo Jing Jiao [Chinese Nestorianism], which was completed in 1966, was only published posthumously in 1993. Zhu's own Preface, written in 1968, during the early years of the Chinese ' Cultural Revolution' (1966—76), when compared with the Introduction by his close colleague Professor Huang Xin Chuan, written in 1991, fifteen years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, reveals the drastic change in the attitude of Chinese intellectuals toward Christianity in the last couple of decades. In his 1968 Preface, Zhu claimed that his study was more 'scientific' than his predecessors because his was conducted ' under the guidance of the Marxist history of science' and he concluded his book with this remark:

The demise of Nestorianism in China and elsewhere does not necessarily mean the end of Christianity in China ... The Jesuit missionaries who came during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and the arrival of Protestant missions after the Opium War were all in the steps of the Nestorians and they were connected with the colonial system of the West.13

Writing in 1991, thirteen years after the inauguration of Deng's Open Door Policy, Professor Huang Xin Chuan wrote in his Introduction:

Before the ' Great Cultural Revolution' Christian studies in the mainland of our country were very weak. From 1949 to 1978, for nearly thirty years, not a single book on the subject was published; only some forty articles appeared. This was due to the influence of extreme leftist thinking. Writings on religions in general, and Christianity in particular, during this period adopted a very critical and negative attitude, so that even Mr Zhu was not quite free from such influence.14

Zhao Dun Hua is the current Head of the Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies in Beijing University.

Since Mr Zhu had passed away, we were not able to change the contents of his book or judge him according to the academic yardstick of today. After 1978 our Government has adopted a reform and open door policy which has created a situation where many diverse views of the academia can find expressions. Religious studies have since been given a new lease of life and are now gradually moving towards the right direction.15

While Huang had earlier lamented the absence of a single published book on Christianity from 1949 to 1978, a modern Chinese scholar, Wang Xiao Zhao of Tsinghua University, was very pleased to inform the fifth annual meeting of Chinese scholars in Christian and other religious studies in Boston, USA, in June 2000, that from about 1980 to 2000 no less than a thousand Chinese books, translation works and articles on Christianity were published.16

In an international symposium held in Beijing in October 2001, Wang Xiao Chao confounded the participants with his suggestion that '[Modern] Chinese society has already accepted Christianity.'17 What Wang actually meant was that the Chinese, especially the intellectuals, have never been so open and fair to Christianity as they are now. Historically and culturally speaking there is a great deal of truth in what Wang said.

Liu Xiao Feng of Zhongsan University observes that while the publication of Christian books was sporadic in the late 1980s, it has certainly become more organized since the early 1990s. What is even more significant is the fact that some of the most serious works have actually been produced by state-owned publishers. This is rather rare even in Taiwan and Hong Kong.18

Li Ping Ye, a Chinese Government official now based in Hong Kong, thinks that an understanding of Christian civilization especially since the Reformation is essential in an age of globalization, and a comparison

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